Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons^™

Managing Performance [In Child Welfare Supervision], Megan E. Paul, Michelle Graef, Erika J. Robinson, Kristin Saathoff

Center on Children, Families, and the Law: Faculty Publications

One of the primary roles of a supervisor is to manage worker performance. Performance management is the "continuous process of identifying, measuring, and developing the performance of individuals and teams and aligning performance with the strategic goals of the organization" (Aguinis, 2007, p. 2). Supervisors must regularly assess current performance levels and take steps to improve performance in a way that is congruent with agency goals. The ultimate goal is to achieve agency objectives through individual and team performance.

To effectively manage performance, supervisors must know what the performance expectations are for workers and clearly communicate these expectations to workers. …

Recruiting And Selecting Child Welfare Staff, Michelle Graef, Megan Paul, Tara L. Myers

Center on Children, Families, and the Law: Faculty Publications

In this chapter, the focus is on recruiting and selecting new staff and on the steps agencies can take to ensure that they are doing the best possible job to attract and hire a high-performing, committed workforce. This chapter reviews a number of strategies for improving recruitment and selection processes and provides case examples from the authors' work with child protection agencies in several states. These projects have been accomplished by a team of researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Center on Children, Families, and the Law (CCFL). Some of the techniques described here will be familiar, whereas others are …

Socio-Economic Analysis Of Neighborhood Issues Facing Mps Students And Their Families In Zipcode 53204, Lois M. Quinn, John Pawasarat

ETI Publications

As a planning supplement to the annual count of school children in the city of Milwaukee, the Employment and Training Institute assembled administrative and institutional data bases to help provide a socio-economic analysis of neighborhood issues facing Milwaukee Public Schools students and their families. Nine Milwaukee zip codes historically targeted for Community Development Block Grant funding because of their concentrations of poverty are analyzed in detail. This report provides neighborhood drilldowns on key issues of concern to educators for Milwaukee zip code 53204. The zip code drilldowns explore interrelationships at the neighborhood level between earnings of Milwaukee parents; job availability; …

Ex-Offender Populations In Milwaukee County, John Pawasarat

ETI Publications

Released prisoners are among the most difficult labor force populations to serve and least likely to be successfully engaged in sustained employment due to persistent legal problems, low education attainment levels, high recidivism rates, and driver’s license suspension and revocation restrictions. The stigma of being an ex-inmate and the limitations this places on those released and expected to become gainfully employed are compounded further by legal sanctions placed on many adults who have spent time in correctional facilities. A total of 42,046 Milwaukee County working age adults have been in the DOC system, including men and women presently incarcerated in …

Socio-Economic Analysis Of Neighborhood Issues Facing Milwaukee Public Schools Students And Their Families, Lois M. Quinn, John Pawasarat

ETI Publications

As a planning supplement to the annual count of school children in the city of Milwaukee, the Employment and Training Institute assembled administrative and institutional data bases to help provide a socio-economic analysis of neighborhood issues facing Milwaukee Public Schools students and their families. This report provides neighborhood drilldowns on key issues of concern to educators. Nine Milwaukee zip codes historically targeted for Community Development Block Grant funding because of their concentrations of poverty are analyzed in detail. The zip code drilldowns explore interrelationships at the neighborhood level between earnings of Milwaukee parents, job availability, the economic recession, expansion of …

Socio-Economic Analysis Of Issues Facing Children And Families In Milwaukee Public Schools: Presentation, Lois M. Quinn

ETI Publications

This presentation for Milwaukee Public Schools administrators details critical neighborhood issues facing MPS children and families, including the housing crisis and spike in foreclosures, crime and traffic accidents near the schools, availability of subsidized child care, changes in public assistance policies for parents, drivers’ license barriers to employment, rates of incarceration in MPS neighborhoods, lasting impacts of the recession, and earnings of employed Milwaukee families.

Socio-Economic Analysis Of Neighborhood Issues Facing Mps Students And Their Families In Zipcode 53205, Lois M. Quinn, John Pawasarat

ETI Publications

As a planning supplement to the annual count of school children in the city of Milwaukee, the Employment and Training Institute assembled institutional and administrative data bases to help provide a socio-economic analysis of neighborhood issues facing Milwaukee Public Schools students and their families. Nine Milwaukee zip codes historically targeted for Community Development Block Grant funding because of their concentrations of poverty are analyzed in detail. This report provides neighborhood drilldowns on key issues of concern to educators for Milwaukee zip code 53205. The zip code drilldowns explore interrelationships at the neighborhood level between earnings of Milwaukee parents; job availability; …

Socio-Economic Analysis Of Neighborhood Issues Facing Mps Students And Their Families In Zipcode 53208, Lois M. Quinn, John Pawasarat

ETI Publications

As a planning supplement to the annual count of school children in the city of Milwaukee, the Employment and Training Institute assembled institutional and administrative data bases to help provide a socio-economic analysis of neighborhood issues facing Milwaukee Public Schools students and their families. Nine Milwaukee zip codes historically targeted for Community Development Block Grant funding because of their concentrations of poverty are analyzed in detail. This report provides neighborhood drilldowns on key issues of concern to educators for Milwaukee zip code 53208. The zip code drilldowns explore interrelationships at the neighborhood level between earnings of Milwaukee parents; job availability; …

Socio-Economic Analysis Of Neighborhood Issues Facing Mps Students And Their Families In Zipcode 53206, Lois M. Quinn, John Pawasarat

ETI Publications

As a planning supplement to the annual count of school children in the city of Milwaukee, the Employment and Training Institute assembled institutional and administrative data bases to help provide a socio-economic analysis of neighborhood issues facing Milwaukee Public Schools students and their families. Nine Milwaukee zip codes historically targeted for Community Development Block Grant funding because of their concentrations of poverty are analyzed in detail. This report provides neighborhood drilldowns on key issues of concern to educators for Milwaukee zip code 53206. The zip code drilldowns explore interrelationships at the neighborhood level between earnings of Milwaukee parents; job availability; …

Socio-Economic Analysis Of Neighborhood Issues Facing Mps Students And Their Families In Zipcode 53212, Lois M. Quinn, John Pawasarat

ETI Publications

As a planning supplement to the annual count of school children in the city of Milwaukee, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Employment and Training Institute assembled institutional and administrative data bases to help provide a socio-economic analysis of neighborhood issues facing Milwaukee Public Schools students and their families. Nine Milwaukee zip codes historically targeted for Community Development Block Grant funding because of their concentrations of poverty are analyzed in detail. This report provides neighborhood drilldowns on key issues of concern to educators for Milwaukee zip code 53212. The zip code drilldowns explore interrelationships at the neighborhood level between earnings of Milwaukee …

Survey Of Job Openings In The 7 Counties Of Southeastern Wisconsin: Week Of May 25, 2009, John Pawasarat

ETI Publications

The job openings survey of employers in southeastern Wisconsin (i.e., Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, Washington, Kenosha, Walworth, and Ozaukee counties) was prepared by the Employment and Training Institute for the Regional Workforce Alliance, with funding support from a U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training WIRED grant. Over 3,800 employers provided data on their job openings during the week of May 25, 2009, through use of a mail survey, hundreds of follow-up phone interviews, and reviews of web postings (where such data included all current openings). For each opening employers provided information on the job title; whether the job was full-time …

Socio-Economic Analysis Of Neighborhood Issues Facing Mps Students And Their Families In Zipcode 53210, Lois M. Quinn, John Pawasarat

ETI Publications

As a planning supplement to the annual count of school children in the city of Milwaukee, the Employment and Training Institute assembled institutional and administrative data bases to help provide a socio-economic analysis of neighborhood issues facing Milwaukee Public Schools students and their families. Nine Milwaukee zip codes historically targeted for Community Development Block Grant funding because of their concentrations of poverty are analyzed in detail. This report provides neighborhood drilldowns on key issues of concern to educators for Milwaukee zip code 53210. The zip code drilldowns explore interrelationships at the neighborhood level between earnings of Milwaukee parents; job availability; …

Socio-Economic Analysis Of Neighborhood Issues Facing Mps Students And Their Families In Zipcode 53216, Lois M. Quinn, John Pawasarat

ETI Publications

As a planning supplement to the annual count of school children in the city of Milwaukee, the Employment and Training Institute assembled institutional and administrative data bases to help provide a socio-economic analysis of neighborhood issues facing Milwaukee Public Schools students and their families. Nine Milwaukee zip codes historically targeted for Community Development Block Grant funding because of their concentrations of poverty are analyzed in detail. This report provides neighborhood drilldowns on key issues of concern to educators for Milwaukee zip code 53216. The zip code drilldowns explore interrelationships at the neighborhood level between earnings of Milwaukee parents; job availability; …

Socio-Economic Analysis Of Neighborhood Issues Facing Mps Students And Their Families In Zipcode 53233, Lois M. Quinn, John Pawasarat

ETI Publications

As a planning supplement to the annual count of school children in the city of Milwaukee, the Employment and Training Institute assembled institutional and administrative data bases to help provide a socio-economic analysis of neighborhood issues facing Milwaukee Public Schools students and their families. Nine Milwaukee zip codes historically targeted for Community Development Block Grant funding because of their concentrations of poverty are analyzed in detail. This report provides neighborhood drilldowns on key issues of concern to educators for Milwaukee zip code 53233. The zip code drilldowns explore interrelationships at the neighborhood level between earnings of Milwaukee parents; job availability; …

Socio-Economic Analysis Of Neighborhood Issues Facing Mps Students And Their Families In Zipcode 53218, Lois M. Quinn, John Pawasarat

ETI Publications

As a planning supplement to the annual count of school children in the city of Milwaukee, the Employment and Training Institute assembled institutional and administrative data bases to help provide a socio-economic analysis of neighborhood issues facing Milwaukee Public Schools students and their families. Nine Milwaukee zip codes historically targeted for Community Development Block Grant funding because of their concentrations of poverty are analyzed in detail. This report provides neighborhood drilldowns on key issues of concern to educators for Milwaukee zip code 53218. The zip code drilldowns explore interrelationships at the neighborhood level between earnings of Milwaukee parents; job availability; …

Social Information Processing And Aggressive Behavior: A Transactional Perspective, Reid G. Fontaine, Kenneth A. Dodge

Reid G. Fontaine

Chapter has no abstract

On The Boundaries Of Culture As An Affirmative Defense, Reid Griffith Fontaine, Eliot M. Held

Reid G. Fontaine

A “cultural defense” to criminal culpability cannot achieve true pluralism without collapsing into a totally subjective, personal standard. Applying an objective cultural standard does not rescue a defendant from the external imposition of values—the purported aim of the cultural defense—because a cultural standard is, at its core, an external standard imposed onto an individual. The pluralist argument for a cultural defense also fails on its own terms—after all, justice systems are themselves cultural institutions. Furthermore, a defendant’s background is already accounted for at sentencing. The closest thing to a cultural defense that a court could adopt without damaging the culpability …

The Wrongfulness Of Wrongly Interpreting Wrongfulness: Provocation Interpretational Bias And Heat Of Passion Homicide, Reid G. Fontaine

Reid G. Fontaine

In U.S. criminal law, a defendant charged with murder can invoke the heat of passion defense, an affirmative, partial-excuse defense so that he may be instead found guilty of the lesser crime of manslaughter. This defense requires the defendant to demonstrate that he was significantly provoked and, as a direct result of the provocation, became extremely emotionally disturbed and committed the killing while in this uncontrolled emotional state. In this way, the law makes a partial allowance for emotional dysfunction—the wrongfulness of the homicide is mitigated when the emotionally charged reactivity restricts the actor’s capacity for rational thought and reasoned …

Development Of Response Evaluation And Decision (Red) And Antisocial Behavior In Childhood And Adolescence, Reid Griffith Fontaine, Chongming Yang, Kenneth A. Dodge, Gregory S. Pettit, John E. Bates

Reid G. Fontaine

Using longitudinal data on 585 youths (48% female; 17% African American, 2% other ethnic minority), the authors examined the development of social response evaluation and decision (RED) across childhood (Study 1; kindergarten through Grade 3) and adolescence (Study 2; Grades 8 and 11). Participants completed hypothetical-vignette-based RED assessments, and their antisocial behaviors were measured by multiple raters. Structural equation modeling and linear growth analyses indicated that children differentiate alternative responses by Grade 3, but these RED responses were not consistently related to antisocial behavior. Adolescent analyses provided support for a model of multiple evaluative domains of RED and showed strong …

Policing Politics At Sentencing, Stephanos Bibas, Max M. Schanzenbach, Emerson H. Tiller

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Miscarriage Of Juvenile Justice: A Modern Day Parable Of The Unintended Results Of Bad Lawmaking, Amy Vorenberg

Law Faculty Scholarship

Sensationalized cases increasingly create the context for public policy discussion. Stories about violent crime are a common feature of the local evening news and their emotional nature can often create the hook politicians need to showcase their “tough on crime” agendas. Often anecdotal and lurid, stories of criminal misdeeds are widely used to convince the public of a need to create or change laws. This article demonstrates the perils of making law by extrapolating from a few random, albeit attention-grabbing, events. Specifically, the article examines the impact of a 1995 change in New Hampshire state law that lowered the age …

Public Perceptions Of Registry Laws For Juvenile Sex Offenders, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Bette L. Bottoms, Maria C. Vargas

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Understanding jurors’ perceptions of juvenile defendants has become increasingly important as more and more juvenile cases are being tried in adult criminal court rather than family or juvenile court. Intellectual disability and child maltreatment are overrepresented among juvenile delinquents, and juveniles (particularly disabled juveniles) are at heightened risk for falsely confessing to crimes. In two mock trial experiments, we examined the effects of disability, abuse history, and confession evidence on jurors’ perceptions of a juvenile defendant across several different crime scenarios. Abused juveniles were treated more leniently than nonabused juveniles only when the juvenile’s crime was motivated by self-defense against …

Loneliness As A Partial Mediator Of The Relation Between Low Social Preference In Childhood And Anxious/Depressed Symptoms In Adolescence, Reid Griffith Fontaine, Chongming Yang, Virginia Salzer Burks, Kenneth A. Dodge, Joseph M. Price, Gregory S. Pettit, John E. Bates

Reid G. Fontaine

This study examined the mediating role of loneliness (assessed by self-report at Time 2; Grade 6) in the relation between early social preference (assessed by peer report at Time 1; kindergarten through Grade 3) and adolescent anxious/depressed symptoms (assessed by mother, teacher, and self-reports at Time 3; Grades 7–9). Five hundred eighty-five boys and girls (48% female; 16% African American) from three geographic sites of the Child Development Project were followed from kindergarten through Grade 9. Loneliness partially mediated and uniquely incremented the significant effect of low social preference in childhood on anxious/depressed symptoms in adolescence, controlling for early anxious/depressed …